Plane Full Of Passengers Reportedly Told To Get Tuberculosis Shots After Flight Lands

It’s one thing to endure a flight full of your neighbor’s hacking and coughing (bring cough drops to share, you never know!) but it’s an entirely different matter to learn that you might need to get to the doctor for some shots because someone was flying with active tuberculosis.

A plane full of passengers landing on a US Airways Express flight operated by Mesa at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor Airport on Saturday was reportedly advised to get shots for tuberculosis, reports ABC 15.

One passenger says she, her husband and their daughter were coming back from Austin when the plane came to a halt short of the gate. She says paramedics and cops came onboard and took a man off the plane who’d been sitting in front of them, allegedly because he had active tuberculosis.

According to that witness, passengers were told they should get TB shots, while a customer service worker at the airport said passengers should call the airline on Monday.

A spokesman for US Airways confirmed that a flight from Austin to Phoenix did have a passenger with a “medical issue” but wouldn’t say which specific disease.

Apparently the passenger was cleared to board the plane, but at some point in midair his status was switched to “no-fly,” but the spokesman says he’s not sure why. He did say that the plane stopped before reaching the terminal and paramedics boarded it to advise passengers before the plane went on its way.

There’s no confirmed case of TB in the area, an official with the county’s department of public health tells the station, and as such passengers aren’t at risk.